O'Kelly savours trip to unknown

AT least, Malcolm O'Kelly is interested in travelling. That is one positive he took on the arduous trip to Siberia.

Irish rugby enters it's gulag this morning punishment for failing to breach the Argentinean line in those desperate final 10 minutes in Lens three years ago.

The rather humbling road to next year's antipodean World Cup will, hopefully, ensure such a disaster doesn't befall Irish rugby again. In the meantime, the players must fortify themselves for this step into the unknown, and a chance to visit the barren wasteland that housed some of Stalin's more evil excesses.

"Well, I have a great love of travelling and seeing different places. This will certainly be one of the more intriguing places I have been to, and it is not somewhere I would have ordinarily travelled. O'Kelly says.

There will be over 30,000 Siberians baying for blood when O'Kelly and his team-mates step onto the field this morning. Two days after a long haul flight, the Irish team will need to be in top fettle to face the challenge. "We are on a different level to these boys. But, rugby is big in Siberia and they take it very seriously. The government has promised backing if they do well in these qualifying games and get to the World Cup," says O Kelly.

The recent Romanian debacle has quelled all the encouraging signs made after a few decent displays in New Zealand. Against Romania, particularly in the second half, Ireland looked a ragged bunch of players Siberia may be a strange place to visit, but there will be little sightseeing for the Irish rugby team in the next 12 months. It's time to get serious. Starting in Northern Russia.